


long hair don't care

by emmerrr



Series: To live will be an awfully big adventure [6]
Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Fluff, Hair Braiding, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-27
Updated: 2018-03-27
Packaged: 2019-04-13 19:11:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,314
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14119005
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emmerrr/pseuds/emmerrr
Summary: Andrew grows his hair. Neil reaps the benefits.





	long hair don't care

**Author's Note:**

> a tumblr prompt from a while ago i never uploaded here. until NOW :)

It’s Kevin’s fault, really.

It’s Kevin who walks past Andrew in the locker-room one day and makes a remark that his hair’s getting a little long and he should really think about getting it cut, and thus launching the ‘how long can Andrew go without getting his hair cut purely out of spite’ debacle.

It’s not even like Kevin was trying to issue a challenge, but inadvertent as it may have been, he has.

Of course it’s barely noticeable at first. Hair’s funny that way; it’ll look the same for ages and then all of a sudden, one day, it’s  _grown_. 

Following an early morning run, Neil returns to the suite he shares with Andrew and Kevin and he walks into the bedroom to Kevin’s alarm already blaring. Neil turns it off.

“Come on guys,” he says. “Practice soon.”

Kevin groans loudly and pulls his pillow over his head. Neil grins at the sight and grabs his towel to have a quick shower, resolving to let his roommates sleep for at least that much longer.

Once he’s finished, Kevin has managed to drag himself out of bed and heads off to the bathroom now that Neil’s vacated it.

There is no movement from the loft above Neil’s bed.

“Andrew,” he says.

“…What,” comes the hoarse reply.

“Practice. Gotta get up.”

Andrew grunts but then he finally shifts, and Neil spies a grumpy goalie peering blearily over the edge of his loft.

His hair is a colossal mess, half sticking up on one side, other wisps of it curling around his face. Neil stares for a few seconds, utterly enamoured.

Andrew narrows his eyes. “Why are you looking at me like that.”

“Because,” Neil says, stepping up onto his bed and hooking his arms over Andrew’s loft, “you have the most incredible bedhead I have ever seen.” 

Andrew moves his hand halfway to his head before seeming to decide that looks too much like he cares, and he drops it again.

Neil reaches out a hand. “Can I?”

Andrew flicks his gaze over Neil’s shoulder, presumably to check Kevin isn’t about to walk back in, and then he shifts forward so he’s within Neil’s easy reach.

Neil smiles a silent thank you and eases his fingers through Andrew’s hair, smoothing down the flyaways. When he’s satisfied and glances properly at Andrew’s face, Andrew’s looking back.

Neil sees the unasked question and he nods, relishing in the way his heart flutters when Andrew gently presses his lips to Neil’s. Such a little thrill, every single time.

Kevin’s impatient yell of, “Practice! Now!” almost makes Neil fall backwards in surprise but Andrew steadies him, and he rolls his eyes and finally moves to get out of bed.

Neil steps down and heads for the door, but pauses when he hears Andrew’s voice from behind him. “So you like the longer hair, huh.”

Neil shrugs. “It’s alright.”

 

* * *

 

 

Weeks pass and Andrew’s hair just gets longer. 

To everyone else, it still seems like it’s purely to get a rise out of Kevin, and if so then it’s definitely working; Kevin’s quietly seething about it. More because of how stubborn he thinks Andrew’s being than the actual act of defiance itself, it seems, but he also mentioned something about Andrew looking ‘scruffy’. Scruffy or no, Neil’s not complaining.

“Just a trim is all I’m asking,” Kevin pleads with Andrew one afternoon before practice starts. “Just enough to get it out of your eyes so you can see on the court properly.”

Renee chooses that moment to swing by and hand Andrew a bubblegum pink bandanna. “I saw this and thought of you,” she says brightly. 

Andrew looks at it, bemused, and says, “Of course you did.” Then without dropping eye-contact with Kevin, he fixes the bandanna in place, effectively clearing his vision.

There’s a brief glare-off between the pair, and then Kevin throws his hands up in defeat and stalks off. “Whatever! It’s your hair!”

It’s objectively one of the funniest things Neil has ever witnessed.

Of course even now that Kevin’s lost interest in goading Andrew, he  _still_ hasn’t cut it.

Neil is  _pretty_ sure it’s because Andrew knows he likes it, but he knows that suggesting as much to Andrew is the fastest way possible to Andrew shaving his head, probably. And if Neil just stays quiet, then he can reap the benefits.

Playing with Andrew’s hair is  _incredibly_  soothing.

Friday is game day, and Kevin goes to the stadium early to do his homework and narrow down his focus. It means that in the two hour or so window they have between finishing classes and having to be at the stadium, Neil and Andrew have the suite to themselves.

Neil chucks his bag onto his desk then gets changed. He detours to the kitchen to rifle through the cupboards and pulls out a granola bar for himself and a packet of M&Ms for Andrew, then goes and sits on one of the bean-bag chairs.

It takes the amount of time for him to eat his granola bar for Andrew to finish changing and emerge from the bedroom, and when he does he looks impassively between Neil and the spare bean-bag chair next to him.

In the end, he bypasses it and instead sits on the floor in front of Neil, scooching back so he’s in between his legs. Neil leans forward over his shoulder and deposits the M&Ms in Andrew’s lap.

“You okay?” he asks as Andrew opens the packet and tucks in.

“Yup.”

Neil hums, wondering why Andrew is choosing sitting on the floor over the comfort of the empty bean-bag. Then it hits him.

“Do you want me to play with your hair?”

For a moment the only sound is the rustling of the M&Ms bag. Then Andrew says, “I don’t care what you do.”

Andrew’s still not good at admitting when he actually likes something – even when it’s blatantly obvious that he does – so Neil takes it as the ‘yes’ he knows it to be.

Andrew’s hair is wavy when it’s grown out a bit, and it’s thicker than it looks short. Neil carefully scrapes it all back out of Andrew’s face, and he realises he’s got a decent handful. A baby ponytail. In fact, he could  _almost_ – 

“Huh,” Neil says, considering.

“What?”

“Don’t move, I’ll be right back.” He gets up and goes to the bedroom and searches through his bedside table until he finds the pack of bright orange hair-ties that Allison got him when his own hair was just long enough to tie back.

When Neil sits back down, Andrew hooks an arm around Neil’s calf, and leans his head against Neil’s knee.

“Did you mean it when you said you didn’t care what I did?”

“I always mean what I say.” He closes his eyes and Neil feels incredibly trusted.

“Okay then,” Neil says happily.

Twenty minutes later, Andrew is sporting six braids of equal (or near enough) size. They’re pretty shitty braids, Neil can admit. Andrew’s hair’s not  _quite_ long enough for them so they’re short and messy and it won’t be long until they fall out, but Neil is strangely proud of them. 

Andrew looks cute. And weirdly enough, he keeps them in even after checking his reflection in the bathroom mirror and shooting Neil a disparaging look.

“You said you didn’t care,” Neil points out, smiling.

“I don’t. Yes or no, Neil.”

They’re still just about intact when it’s time to leave for the stadium, although they do look even messier thanks to Neil and Andrew using an empty college dorm-room for what it’s  _actually_ meant for. 

When they walk into the locker-room, Kevin’s sitting on the bench and he takes one look at Andrew before sighing the sigh of the long suffering.

“Well,” he says, “at least it’s out of your fucking eyes.”

**Author's Note:**

> anyone who reads my stuff might have noticed but i've been sorting out all my oneshots. having a series called 'TFC ficlets' was annoying me because it's a boring name, and i also wanted to rearrange them in chronological order, or at least as close to chronological order as i could. it's been a STRUGGLE lmao.


End file.
